Activists announce alternative 2020 conference in Mexico City

An alliance of HIV activists, who focus on key populations affected by HIV that are likely to face entry restrictions for a US-based conference, has announced plans for a international community-led conference titled HIV2020: Community Reclaiming the Global Response.

The event is scheduled to take place in Mexico City, 6-8 July 2020, and will run at the same time as the 2020 International AIDS Conference which will be taking place in the United States.

The HIV2020 Alliance decided to organise the community-led event to provide a safe alternative for individuals who cannot or will not attend AIDS2020 due to discriminatory US immigration and travel policies directed to people from Muslim, African, Caribbean and Latin American countries, people who use drugs, sex workers, and transgender people. The announcement of the event comes on the advent of Human Rights Day, as the conference aims to offer new opportunities to reaffirm the leading role communities can and should play in the global fight for sexual health and human rights.

When the International AIDS Society (IAS) hosted their last event in the U.S. in 2012, sex worker activists and people who used drugs organised their own events in India and Ukraine in protest. In fact, key populations have been organising their own pre-conferences at IAS events to specifically address the needs of their communities for over a decade.